LongHorn Triathlon Festival - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Decided the night before that if it was wetsuit legal why not go ahed and wear the wetsuit and save some of the legs for later in the day. There were a lot of waves ahead of my age group so I found my family and talked with them for a while as the other waves were starting. Got into the wetsuit and popped a Gu and a cup of water, then I saw my wave stating to form up so I headed in. Hit the water and it was cooler than I expected especially after last years bath water temp. Started out on the far left and just stayed there. The buoys were very easy to sight as they were huge. The first bit of the swim was fine but as it went on the course got pretty crowded and there was much weaving in and out and trying to avoid getting kicked. It was good that they changed the dirction and we only had to deal with the sun for a little bit until the first turn after that it was pretty much out of sight. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful.

Nothing.

Long run form the lake to transition, got to the bike and got the wetsuit off and got going. Transition was pretty crowded and I had to dodge a few folks here and there and right at the end of my row was a tree that had to be ducked under. Coming out to the mount line there were a lot of people getting on, got on and got going but did not get in my shoes until I made the turn into the expo center becasue of the number of people on the course.

Move a little faster, overall not too bad.

The start of the bike I was really suprised at the number of people on the course and thought oh it will get better as the ride gors on there is 56 miles to spread out on. Well as the ride went on I was agin suprised that it really did not get any less crowded. Keith was not kidding when he said in the race brief that some of the roads had some pretty deep crcks in them. About an hour into the ride I came around a corner and a ldy in fornt of me put her back wheel in one of those cracks came very close to biting it. She somehow avoided wiping but in the process lost her bottles on her rear hydration cages which I had to dodge. As I passed I asked in she was okay and she said yeah close call. The ride went pretty well there were some streches where there was a pretty stiff headwind but then you would make a turn and be sailing beause the wind was at your back. There were quite a few little groups that formed out on the course and it was hard to pass at times due to road conditions forcing folks to the left. The alst few miles of the ride dropped to a lower gear and started to spin a little to get the legs ready to run. The last hill wasn't too bad and it got my HR up alittle heading into T2.

Maybe take some more calories on the bike. 600 cals of infinit and 200 cal gel, plus 80 oz of water. Brough two salt tabs but did not take them.

Came into the dismount line and there were a lot of people again, plus I waited just a little too long to get my fett out of my shoes so that slowed me down a bit. I did not get a good moving jump off the bike and actually stopped and dismounted. When I got into transition ducked the tree again and then ran past my spot... oops.

Get my feet out of my shoes sooner and get good rolling leap off the bike. And not run by my rack spot.

Hit the run and just started out steady. i told myself I am not going to blow this like last year. The first thing I noticed was that the conditions were a lot different, it was hot but it was overcast and there was nice breeze out on the course. Just kept plugging away at this run and felt really good, slowed just a little through every other aid station for some water. Made it up qudzilla the first time it was slow but steady and when I got to the top the legs felt good, ran by transition and started out on the second loop. I thought to myself I need to take in a gel, but for some reason did not do it. Made it back from the expo cneter and back into the park and right around mile ten I started to feel it a little and the legs started to slow down. Also felt the quads a hammys start to cramp a little. But I told my self just keep running you are almost there. Hit quadzilla the second time and oh did it burn but I made it up without walking even though it was pretty slow. Got to the top and picked it up a little more. Made it through the last little bit and made the final right hand turn to head to the finish line, hit the chute and had no idea waht my time was, but I knew that my second loop of the run was 11 min slower than the first. Got my medal, water bottle and cold towel.

Take in soome more nutrtion early in the run. The only thing I took in was water and that ended up costing me towards the end of the run. However this year was much better than last, and I improved my run by 25 min and did not have to walk at all so I am very pleased.

Walked aroundf met up with the fam and ate some food. When I finally got my results I was very pleased and this race is a PR at this distance by almost 31 min.


Nutrtion was much better than last year but I still have some fine tuning to do.


Once again Keith and the folks at endorfun did a great job with this race. Everything was top notch, and I look forwrd to racing this for years to come.